Right now my wife and I each have an iPhone 5S on Verizon's network. Hers is covered by her company and she also gets a discount so we pay about $80 a month total which includes 4GB data and tethering. We're 10 months away from our 2-year contract renewal and a reasonably priced upgrade phone. Right now to upgrade would be full retail price of $650.
Problem: My wife dropped her phone months ago, shattered the screen, and has been limping along with it ever since. It really started to hit a wall so we spent $60 on a replacement LCD off Amazon. The swap worked great for a couple days but then acted up, wife dropped it again, and now that's shattered too. She needs a new one, and FAST.
Option 1: Pay the full $650. Yuck. Upfront cost $650. Ongoing savings: $0
Option 2: Get a used iPhone. The 5S runs about $340 on glyde.com and reasonable looking ebay ads. A 4S is $140. Upfront cost $140-340. Ongoing savings: $0
Option 3: Give my wife my iPhone to activate on her number ($0), I get a Moto X on Republic wireless $25 plan ($150). Net upfront cost = $150, ongoing savings of 80-25 =$55/month. PROBLEM: I HAVE to have tethering. I have a long train commute and would be crippled without it. Looks like a FreedomPop on top of this would increase my one time cost by $40, and cost $29/month. Net: $190 upfront, monthly saving of 55-29=$26/month. HOWEVER, it looks like Verizon has a killer $350 early termination fee. That would take ~13.5 months to pay for itself. But then at least I would be free of shitty long term contracts and expensive plans! Upfront cost: $190. Ongoing savings: $26/month after ~13.5 months.
Option 4: Give my wife my iPhone to activate on her number ($0), I go with a Ting iPhone 4S refurb for $166 that I'll probably pay about $64/month because of ~3GB data usage. Same Verizon fee to deal with. Upfront cost: $166, ongoing savings $16/month after ~22 months.
It seems like option 3 is the best deal, but I'm leaning a bit towards option 4. My wife is super picky about wanting a recent model iPhone so giving her my 5S will solve that problem, and I'm not married to iPhones but eliminating the learning curve of a new phone would be nice (and not an option with Republic Wireless). Also with option 4 I can tether with the phone, eliminating the need for two devices, which is more convenient.
What say you, Mustachians?!?